These were the formative days of what the champagne-and-finger-food set now call ‘corporate suites’ where major sponsors could host important guests in an exclusive trackside area, long before today’s plush purpose-built facilities had even been thought off.
Upstairs, these buses also provided great viewing platforms high above the Coke-and-hotdog crowd, so the VIPs onboard could get the best view of the racing action.
Chesterfield, Marlboro, Autolite/Motorcraft, McLeod Ford and Ron Hodgson Motors were just some of the big sponsors with their own sign-painted buses (most were owned and operated by Captain Peter Janson) that were a regular feature at Bathurst and other race venues.
There was even a Holden Dealer Team double-decker, with prominent support from Levi’s Jeans. If you gained access to these palaces-on-wheels, you were officially in motor racing’s sacred space.
The ‘3XY Rocks Melbourne’ bus was a regular at Calder and the famous ‘JJ’ shown here was based at Adelaide International Raceway, complete with Torana sponsorship and the essential private grandstand at the back.
Bus-spotters tell us that JJ started life as a 1947 Daimler. We’re told some wild things happened inside, too, once that Bell’s Scotch Whiskey started to flow.
If only those old clunkers could talk! Like most things from the ‘70s motor sport scene, we can’t help wondering - where are they now?
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